[Jeff Lewis @ Aug 12th 2007 2:36PM]

Fujitsu-Siemens is sort of right and sort of wrong.

The problem is that people keep confusing what a smartphone actually is. I own a FSC PocketLoox 720. It's an awesome PDA. Big, high res screen. USB host. All the bells and whistles. And I don't use it must anymore.

Why?

Well, I also have an HTC Wizard PPC Phone. And since it also runs Windows Mobile - most of the stuff I ran on the Loox also runs on the Wizard. But I also get phone functionality too. And while the 3.7" VGA screen on the Loox is awesome - most things work just fine on the 2.6" QVGA screen on the Wizard.

Meanwhile, my new Samsung Q1U fills in the larger screen/higher resolution needs much better than the Loox does.

So, technically, yes - a smartphone replaced my PDA - but ONLY because the smartphone was a phone version OF my PDA.

But I also have an iMate SP3i smartphone - and it does NOT replace the Loox. The lack of touchscreen, low resolution and the clumsiness of using the system through a number keypad exclusively made it really only useful for a small subset of functions.

So, really - PDAs aren't disappearing - they're merging with phones to be come PDA/Phones. If you want to call that a Smartphone (which it is, to be honest), that's fine - but it misrepresents the reality of the situation because most people still see a smartphone as a regular phone with some PIM functions and a camera thrown in.

PS: FSC's refusal to offer system upgrades didn't help either. My Loox 720 is WM4 and cost me $850. I really didn't feel like spending $500+ to get a new PDA to get a new OS. It also didn't help that FSC chose not to market into North America at all - forcing me to buy mine through a reseller in Europe.